The human cost of capturing Pacific islands emotionally justified keeping them after war.

Evidence

The military felt especially justified in retaining captured Pacific islands because of the high human and financial costs of their acquisition. “Having defeated or subordinated its former imperial rivals in the Pacific,” a group of base experts explains, “the United States military was in no mood to hand back occupied real estate.” Many in Congress agreed. No one, they felt, “had the right to give away land which had been bought and paid for with American lives.” Louisiana representative F. Edward Hébert explained the logic prevalent after the war: “We fought for them, we’ve got them, we should keep them. They are necessary to our safety. I see no other course.” — David Vine, Base Nation_ How U.S. Military Bases…, 85

Categorization

• XREF: Sunk-cost logic here connects to the redundancy/strategic-denial justifications in paragraph 84.